Remember the part of EMT and Paramedic class about babysitting? Me neither. Sure we should take care of patients and prevent people from harming themselves. But at what expense? Provider injury to stop someone from doing something stupid? Maybe even dumber than what they have already done to be in your ambulance in the first place.

Take a listen to this weeks episode about the drunk who would be free. Only to sue EMS for his actions.

Is it Emergency Medical Services or Mental Services? I’m not sure about where you work but by me, psychiatric calls are just as abundant as chest pain calls and MVC’s. Pretty much the one call you can count on every shift.

This week we talk about transporting the psychiatric patient, why EMS is saddled with this often “expensive taxi ride” that stresses providers and the system resources. Is more training for EMS the answer, better utilization of non emergency resources or perhaps a smarter approach to each patient including how and where we transport them.

Too often we get patients who don’t need an ambulance never mind the care we can give. Call it job security, just part of the job, whatever. But does responding and transporting these “patients” just give them the green light to keep calling 911 for a high priced taxi ride?

People talk. When we start IV’s, give oxygen, do EKG’s on patients who clearly don’t need it and we are doing it to CYA with our QA/QI department or hospital staff. It just sends a message to these people that “hey, last time I called 911 I got all this treatment and was whisked right into the ED”.

Shouldn’t we be treating each patient as needed? Based on assessment and not a protocol? What do you think?

Last week on Office Hours we discussed various situations where EMS transport decisions aren’t so cut and dry. For this Monday Minutes I wanted to point out a few things you can do to stay prepared if when these situations arise.

In EMS, transportation of our patients can mean many or few options. Patient condition, requests and appropriateness all play a part in deciding how, when and why we transport them. What about special considerations and a patients needs and comfort? Sometimes we are driven by written guidelines and others what is right for the patient. This very lively episode tries to give some important points on this everyday EMS occurrence. What’s your take on transportation decisions?

With more emergency departments being overwhelmed with patients. Some are trying to alleviate the amount of people showing up at specific times. Doing things like texting people wait times and even allowing people to pay for an off peak appointment. Will this have any effect on EMS or is this just hospitals responding to an overload of non emergent ED visits. Won’t this just encourage more non emergent visits? Checkout this podcast below and give your take on this topic and how you think EMS will be helped or hurt by these initiatives.

Great chat room interaction and a few non EMS callers that made it interesting.

This video is a nice quick overview of the heart and talks about how implanted pacemakers and defibrillators work. Did you like this video? I have a great presentation you can get access to for free. “In The Field. Patients With Implanted Pacemakers and ICDs” Dr. Coman will discuss key elements in patients with pacemakers and […]

With 2017 coming to an end I thought it would be great to ask a few of the leading EMS professionals out there what they liked in 2017 and what they wanted to see more of in 2018. These were some great quick interviews and what these guys want to focus on may surprise you. […]

This is a quick review of common ECG rhythm strips that points out key features. Knowing what to look for will help you when you see that abnormal ECG. If you are on the fence when it comes to mastering basic ECG strips like these and advancing to more complicated rhythms. I think this ECG […]